Justified - poslednja sezona

‘Justified’s’ Joelle Carter: Talking (but not telling!) about the finale

By Neely Tucker April 10




Actress Joelle Carter has been everybody’s favorite femme fatale in “Justified” for six years and 78 episodes. As the FX cult-favorite series comes to an end on Tuesday, the fate of her character, Ava, is still in question — she’s caught halfway between Boyd and Raylan. Carter, 42, has an offscreen life that doesn’t much resemble that of Ava’s. She lives in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles with her husband and their 4-year-old daughter, Luna. We caught up with her by telephone early on a recent morning, just as Luna was waking up. We heard barking in the background, which she explained was the family terrier, Waffles. Which led us to our first question.

Wait. You have a dog named “Waffles”?
Yes. My husband is like, “I never felt more masculine.”

When you saw the final pages of the script, what was your reaction?
“We did it!” This season was filled with schedule conflicts and lots of collaboration. It’s always been a show of collaboration, but the writers really honored that we had breathed life into these characters. We had a lot of say. It got complicated there in the middle, and it was hard to pull it together. . . . After Episode 10, Walton [Goggins, who plays Boyd] flew off [to be in Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”] and we knew we could only get him back a certain amount of days. We shot a lot out of sequence.

What was the last scene you guys actually filmed?
It was out of order, but I think it was a scene in the finale. I better not say — I signed the confidentiality agreement!

While we’re on the finale, I have it down as my prediction that the person Ava called when she was running down the mountain in last week’s show, and the person she has a secret plan to get away with, is Wynn Duffy.
Wynn! The cockroach you can’t get rid of. It’s a good guess. All I’m saying. (Laughs.)

[‘Justified': A totally accurate forecast for the finale]

Other than you yourself not being a part-time pimp and a shiv-stabbing prison inmate, what’s the biggest difference between you and Ava? The most difficult thing for you to play, week after week, for six years?
I would say she’s more outwardly sexual than I am. She uses it as a weapon and as a way to get things that she wants. She knows she has this quality and isn’t hesitant to pull it and use it. She uses it more as fun than I ever would.

Ava has rolled in the haystacks of Harlan with both Raylan and Boyd. So, um, not to be indelicate, but who’d she rather?
That is the question of the year! I always get that question, and I always say, “A woman doesn’t kiss and tell.” Seriously, the way Ava decided between the two of them was that Raylan wasn’t available for what they could be, but Boyd was. Boyd and Ava had a really complicated relationship. They were like two orphans lost at sea and they really wanted to cling onto somebody. They wanted to play-act love, and they wanted to trust one another. They tried real hard.

You were born in Georgia, and mostly raised there, with a father named Jimmy Carter.
My dad used to say he was the handsome one. He had some issues with [having the same name as the president]. He would make reservations somewhere and people would be like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I only took it bad when people would call me “Amy.”

Your name is “Joelle Marie,” a mighty fine Southern name. Did your dad call you by both names when he was unhappy with you?
You know, I always do that, maybe that’s where I got it from. My husband’s name is Andrew, but I never call him that unless I’m angry. It’s always “Andy this” and “Andy that,” but then when I’m mad, it’s “Andrew Bates!”

The show is so good about things Southern. I’m guessing that’s at least in part because you, Walton and several of the other actors and writers are actually from the South.
People who live in accent-heavy areas still have specific ways about them, so I was careful to pay attention to that. There were a lot of documentaries I viewed to get a feel for the area — “Harlan County U.S.A.” was one — so I really tuned into that and drew from my background. The twang is easy to come back. . . . Timothy Olyphant [who grew up in Hawaii and California] always said, “My character has been away a while, so my accent should be more subtle.” Walton and I got to bring out some of the South in a dance sequence. We were supposed to leave this party scene at Mags Bennett’s place after completing a deal. The script said we were just to leave. But Walton goes over and tells them, “Hey, I was a professional clogger. I think we should have a victory dance.”

I thought that was a stunt double!
No, no. He was going off, the whole crowd was cheering. That was him. And I was standing there like, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

The show has always been about these three kids from Harlan — Raylan, Boyd and Ava — who are from mean, impoverished, violent roots, with all this moral squalor, and they want so bad to get out of it. But the question is always, “Can you really leave that behind when it is so much of you?”
That’s just it. You want to get out so bad, to leave and find out what you’re missing. Then you get out there and it’s so foreign to you that you can’t help but miss it, being back home. They really brought it back home this season.

There was a great scene earlier this year, where Ava is telling off Raylan, who’s been away and come back, saying, “Hey, your neck is just as red as mine.”
I actually pitched that line. I thought it was important for Ava to call Raylan out about that, that he’s cut from the same cloth.

Last question: What are you working on now?
I’m about to leave for Europe, actually. I’m going to be there for a month. Going to two weddings and then travel by myself for a little while. Before I was heavily into acting, I modeled and traveled for four years. I miss it and I love to do it.

The series finale of “Justified” will air at 10 p.m. Tuesday on FX.

Bourbon And Justified
in Bourbon Whiskey, Features January 26, 2015 5 Comments

Whiskey’s Role In The Popular Kentucky-Based Crime Drama

By Richard Thomas

(Credit: FX)
FX’s Justified has earned a following among Kentuckians for its authentic, down home flavor (this despite being shot in California), due in no small part to the prominent role Kentucky’s native spirit, bourbon, plays in it. Indeed, Justified is often described as the most whiskey-soaked show on television, the show where bourbon is a supporting character, and as the kind of show where you can tell a lot about a character by the kind of whiskey he drinks. Without whiskey, Justified just ain’t Justified.
With the Elmore Leonard-inspired series entering its sixth and final season, it’s high time to review just who drinks what on the show, and what that might say about them.

(Left to Right) Walton Goggins and Timothy Olyphant, playing Boyd Crowder and Raylan Givens
(Credit: FX)
Raylan Givens: Early in the series, the protagonist identified himself as the show’s white hat by asking for Jim Beam. Since that early reference, Givens was often seen drinking bourbon, but the actual whiskey in question went unidentified except for a few brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss it glimpses of the bottle. The drought on Givens’s drinking choices continued until we see him in Lindsey Salazar’s bar, presumably before he started sleeping with her. When Givens’s ex Ava stops in, Lindsey offers her what Raylan is drinking: Elmer T. Lee, from “the top shelf.” He later suggested to his fifth-season love interest, Alison Brander, that she get into bed with him and a bottle of Blanton’s.
Overall, Givens isn’t especially particular, and will drink whatever is put in front of him so long as it’s bourbon and it’s at least a decent one.
Boyd Crowder: In his initial appearances, the show’s principal antagonist was a Wild Turkey man. Presumably going for “The Bird” fit his role as the continuing bad guy. As Crowder moved up in the world, ultimately becoming Harlan’s crime boss, his tastes rose too. In later episodes he expresses a fondness for Russell’s Reserve, but is usually seen drinking Elmer T. Lee.

Nick Searcy and Art Mullen have a taste for a
broad range of whiskey
(Credit: Nick Searcy)
Art Mullen: The Chief Deputy Marshal and Givens’s boss is the type of guy who has a bottle of Blanton’s tucked away in his desk for when it is needed. On another occasion he was given a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle as a gift, and that has made appearances as well. Yet according to Nick Searcy, the actor who plays Mullen, the character’s go-to whiskey is not bourbon, but Canadian: Crown Royal. As strange as it might seem, Crown Royal would be very authentic, since Lexington, Kentucky is awash in Crown Royal advertising. Collectively, the picture is one of a folksy, successful Lexingtonian with hard working roots.
Arlo Givens: Raylan’s criminal father was, like Crowder in his early days, a Wild Turkey guy.
Emmitt Arnett: The Frankfort-based “Dixie Mafia” boss was shown pouring Pappy Van Winkle into his coffee. His coffee! Clearly this was meant to suggest conspicuous consumption. I’m sure many a bourbon fan were waiting with baited breath for the character’s Season 3 demise for his manifest sin.
Mags Bennett: The “pot queen” of Southeastern Kentucky was also a moonshiner, who routinely offered her apple pie ‘shine as part of her hospitality… or to poison folks she needed to be rid of. The intent was obviously to give her a deeper Appalachian polish than bourbon could provide for the character.
Robert Quarles: The Detroit mobster who killed Arnett and then filled his shoes also adopted his taste in bourbon, but thankfully he showed enough class to not pour Pappy Van Winkle into his java.
Behind the screen, the real people who are associated with Justified are also whiskey enthusiasts. The series is based on the work of author Elmore Leonard, who has a liking for Knob Creek and Black Maple Hill. Walton Goggins, who plays Boyd Crowder, is reportedly a Maker’s Mark fan, while Nick Searcy’s go-to whiskey is Bushmills.